A Conceptual Framework for Information Retrieval to Support Creativity in Business Processes

Creativity as the prerequisite for innovation is a core competitive factor in contemporary organizations. When creativity happens this involves creative persons who produce creative products in a process that cannot be fully anticipated and predescribed. We introduce the concept of pockets of creativity for those sections of a business process where creativity occurs. These sections are characterized by a high demand for flexibility and knowledge of the involved creative persons. In pockets of creativity previous knowledge is retrieved, transformed and combined into new procedures or artifacts – in short – innovations. Naturally, this raises the question of how pockets of creativity can be supported by information technology. Information retrieval is part of an organizations knowledge processes concerned with the representation, storage, organization, searching and finding of organizational knowledge. Informed by case studies we have conducted with organizations from the Creative Industries and drawing from existing theory, in this paper we introduce a conceptual framework for information retrieval that enables creative persons to access relevant information through a multi-perspective, hierarchical view. Such an approach both appropriately considers different ways of creative thinking and provides stimuli to a person's cognitive network fostering her creativity and thus the development of truly innovative products.